I love this entry. Reminds me of the Russian recitation in A Fish Called Wanda. You could also get all gyppy about Occitan, and choose on the spur of the moment whether to snipe at others' snobbery with your inversion or with a sort of rootsier-than-thou, ultra-nationalist medievalism.
OT: I guess there's a whole argot for breaking down the elements of accents, but I have no idea what it is: is this something you've come across?
I'm thinking about habits of speech which may not come under the rubric of accent at all: voice pitch, speed, cadence, where in the mouth the sounds are held, or made, or whatever (such as: what category would "nasal" come under?). The reason it's on my mind is that I'm in Holland and some of the locals sound just like they're from London - until I pay attention and realise they're speaking Dutch. There seems to be some stratum in Holland that has the same pitch, cadence and tics you find in the Thames estuary. So I'm cashing in my "ask a linguist" coupon to ask: does anyone discuss this stuff? What's the current thinking on these aspects of speech?
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momijizukamori
no subject
Date: 2007-05-25 10:12 pm (UTC)OT: I guess there's a whole argot for breaking down the elements of accents, but I have no idea what it is: is this something you've come across?
I'm thinking about habits of speech which may not come under the rubric of accent at all: voice pitch, speed, cadence, where in the mouth the sounds are held, or made, or whatever (such as: what category would "nasal" come under?). The reason it's on my mind is that I'm in Holland and some of the locals sound just like they're from London - until I pay attention and realise they're speaking Dutch. There seems to be some stratum in Holland that has the same pitch, cadence and tics you find in the Thames estuary. So I'm cashing in my "ask a linguist" coupon to ask: does anyone discuss this stuff? What's the current thinking on these aspects of speech?